Movies / Movie Reviews

Ratatouille

By Hervé St-Louis
July 7, 2007 - 13:37

Starring: Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn
Directed by: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava
Produced by: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Brad Lewis
Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Kids/Family and Animation
Running Time: 1 hr. 51 min.
Release Date: June 29th, 2007 (wide)
MPAA Rating: G
Distributors:
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

Remy, is a countryside rat with flair. Inspired by French chef Auguste Gusteau, Remy learns to cook, with his hero’s book, Everyone Can Lean to Cook. Exiled to the city, Remy partners with garbage boy, Linguini, secretly, the heir of Gusteau’s Paris haute cuisine restaurant who has no talent for cooking. Hiding under Linguini’s hat, Remy directs the boy to perform a series of great recipes that attracts the attention of tough food critics and the jealousy of Skinner, the current owner of Gusteau’s restaurant. Can Remy’s dream of becoming a celebrated cook come through or will association with humans be dangerous?

The one thing that I did not like about Ratatouille was how the exploitation department at Disney butchered the word “ratatouille” in English to make it “pronounceable for an English audience. Don’t listen to those snappy commercials that tell you how to pronounce ratatouille. It pronounced Ra-ta- too-y. Not ra-ta-too-eee. That the marketing department at Disney took audiences for idiots shows you how much a risk this move is for Pixar and Disney.

Yet, Ratatouille, in my opinion, is the best Pixar movie to date. This movie continues the trend by Pixar to downplay the role of the voice actors and let the real talent behind the film, the characters be the stars. And it’s not difficult to do. Ratatouille is a delight. It feels like eating a meal that you already know will be good. You can expect that much, and once consumed it was every bit as delightful as you expected and more.

The plot was easy to figure out. The mechanics have been overdone so many times by other inspiring films aimed at children that just watching the trailer was enough to figure out how it would end. Yet, just like good cuisine, it is not the end or the name of the food that you eat that matters. It is the journey and the entire packaging and presentation. Anyone can make a good sorbet, following a typical recipe, and animation is all about recipes. However, only a great chef and mastermind will add something different to an old recipe and make it memorable. Ratatouille is such a movie.

The characterisation of the characters was very adult-like. I like how female cook Collette feels she has to compete in a man’s world and how she was about to pepper spray Linguini in one scene. The one scene that just blew me away, because it was so much a cliché, yet, it was exactly the touch required to make any adult sync in with the movie was about food critic Anton’s childhood. The audience and I were chuckling so hard during this scene, it was incredible.

How Pixar managed to visually portray smell and Remy’s brother lack of it was brilliant. With Remy, you can visually understand how all the tastes explode in his mouth. Yet, With brother Émile, the visuals were not as powerful. The colours in Ratatouille are rich. It feels like there is a permanent sunset on the characters and places, which translate the sense that haute cuisine is about taste in combination with all other senses.

I especially like how Remy acted with humans. He had a simplicity and sense modest resignation that translate what being a chef is all about. It’s not about being great and famous. It’s about serving your hosts with delicacies and making them enjoy their time in your home. This is character animation that is not about explosions and great action. It is character animation about simple things.

For a movie about cooking, I don’t think there is any better ambassador to make people savour and enjoy the art of haute cuisine, be they kids or adults.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12